V. On Racial Discrimination    

    The United States is a multi-ethnic nation of immigrants, with minority ethnic groups accounting for more than one-fourth of its population. But racial discrimination has long been a chronic malady of American society.Black Americans and other ethnic minorities are at the bottom of American society and their living standards are much lower than that of whites. According to The State of Black America 2005, the income level of African American families is only one-tenth of that of white families, and the welfare enjoyed by black Americans is only three-fourths of their white counterparts. In 2004, the poverty rate was 24.7 percent for African Americans, 21.9 percent for Hispanics, and 8.6 percent fornon-Hispanic whites. In New Orleans, 100,000 of its 500,000 population live in poverty, with the majority of them being black Americans. The home ownership rate for blacks is 48.1 percent compared with 75.4 percent for whites. The Washington Post reported on April 11, 2005 that in 2004, about 29 percent of African Americans who bought or refinanced homes ended up with high-cost loans, compared with only about 10 percent of white Americans. Statistics released by the Federal Reserve in September 2005 also indicated that according to the 2004 mortgage data, the average incidence of higher-priced home purchase loans was 32.4 percent among African-Americans, 20.3 percent among Hispanic whites and 8.7 percent for non-Hispanic whites. The Los Angles Times quoted on July 14, 2005 a report on the State of Black Los Angeles as saying that black Americans were behind other ethnic groups in income, housing, medical care and education. Blacks had the lowest median household income of 31,905 dollars, compared with whites at 53,978 dollars. Although just 10 percent of the population, blacks were estimated to make up 30 percent or more ofthe homeless.

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